Complaint alleges City Gear skirted managers’ overtime

A collective action complaint filed against Memphis-based clothing retailer City Gear LLC seeks more than $25 million in damages in response to allegations of unpaid overtime compensation and purported violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act dating back to at least 2009.

Filed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee on Dec. 11, the complaint alleges City Gear “violated the wage-and-hour provisions of the FLSA by depriving Plaintiffs, as well as others similarly situated to Plaintiffs, of their lawful overtime wages.”

Mike Longo, CEO at City Gear, says the company has yet to be officially served with process papers and adds there are inaccuracies within the complaint.

“We’re willing to accept that some facts (in the complaint) are just not accurate,” Longo says.

On the other hand, Andrew Melzer, an attorney in the New York office of Sanford Heisler LLP, is representing the plaintiffs in the case and calls the alleged violations “very cut and dried.”

“It’s really a fairly simple violation,” Melzer says. “They are trying to get away with paying people hourly wages, but not paying them overtime.”

The complaint contends City Gear store managers and assistant managers are converted to hourly employees if they fail to log 45 hours during the work week, hours for which they are allegedly denied overtime pay. The collective action seeks “unpaid compensation, an equal amount of liquidated damages and/or prejudgment interest, attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to (FLSA).”

As a collective action, the complaint differs from a class action in that it requires members to voluntarily opt in to the case for representation.

Plaintiffs named in the complaint are Denithia Pendergrass of Nashville and Alena Kelley of Lewisville, Texas. Kelley reportedly worked as an assistant manager and store manager at The Vault in Oak Court Mall in Memphis from November 2010 to March 2012; Pendergrass has worked in the same capacity for Marty’s and City Gear stores in Nashville since August 2006.

The two women are represented “individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated employees,” according to the complaint, which concerns only federal allegations for the time being. Melzer says a potential suit could involve 200 workers or more across the company’s footprint.